the limitations of global social movement unionism as an emancipatory labour strategy in majority...

8/14/2019 The Limitations of Global Social Movement Unionism as an Emancipatory Labour Strategy in Majority World Count

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The Limitations of Global Social Movement Unionism as an

Emancipatory Labour Strategy in Majority World Countries

Zia Rahman and Tom Langford1 2

Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka1 [email protected] of Sociology, University of Calgary2 [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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The Limitations of Global Social Movement Unionism as an

Emancipatory Labour Strategy in Majority World Countries

Abstract

This study assesses the applicability of Peter Watermans model of global social

movement unionism as an emancipatory labour strategy in Bangladesh, an important site for the

manufacture of ready made garments in the neo-liberal era. Our main conclusions are that

Watermans North Atlanticist model fails to comprehend the present-day necessities and

struggles of the Bangladesh working class; ignores the impacts of colonialism, militarism and

imperialism on Bangladeshs socio-economic development and labour movement; and privileges

democratic dialogue as a means of action when militant collective mobilization has been shown

to be the only effective way to get action on workers issues in countries like Bangladesh. Our

recommendation is for Waterman and others to abandon the quest for a universal model of

progressive labour unionism and instead come up with a variety of models that apply to different

typical patterns of socio-economic and labour movement development in the globalized world.


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The Limitations of Global Social Movement Unionism as anEmancipatory Labour Strategy in Majority World Countries

The era of neo-liberal globalization has been characterized by privatization and

deregulation as well as the internationalization of many commodity chains that were formerly

local, regional or national in scale. These changes in the character of global capitalism have had

significant effects on the processes of working class formation and the organization of work.

One striking feature of the neo-liberal era has been the uneven geographical growth of the global

proletariat: while between 1970 and 2000 the workforce in OECD countries increased by a

modest 31 percent (from 307 to 401 million workers), the workforce in developing regions

increased by an astounding 91 percent (from 1,120 to 2,138 million workers) (Munck 2002, 7).

The general character of the changes in the organization of work is captured by the term

flexibilisation of labour. Ronaldo Munck argues that flexibility, in its multiple but interrelated

guises, is probably the defining characteristic of labour in the era of international

competitiveness (2002, 73). Flexibilisation has created a plethora of workers -- including part-

timers and temporary contract employees -- that pose severe organizational challenges to labour

unions. This is one of the important reasons that trade union density has fallen in most advanced

industrial countries in recent decades (Visser 2006, 45), and most analysts would agree with

Muncks conclusion that there has been a fundamental social weakening of labour during this

period (2002, 128).

In the face of this reality, however, not all students of labour movements are pessimistic.

For instance, Beverly Silver contends, The late twentieth-century-crisis of labour movements is

temporary and will likely be overcome with the consolidation of new working classes in

formation (2003, 171). Her projection, based upon a path breaking study of the patterns of


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global labour unrest between the 1870s and 1990s, is that significant labour movements will

emerge in the future when production of established products is shifted to new global locations

and particularly when new products that command monopoly profits are first brought into mass

production (77-79). Other researchers have had their optimism sustained by the successes of

particular labour movements, unions or campaigns in the midst of the general reversals of the

neo-liberal era. Labour organizations in the majority world that have been promoted as success

stories at different times include the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Hirschsohn

1998); the Kilusang Mayo Uno Labour Centre in the Philippines (Lambert 1990); and the

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Webster et al. 2008, 169-174). In the United States,

researchers have hailed successful efforts to organize the unorganized by unions such as the

Service Employees International Union (Lopez 2004, 219; Milkman 2006). Furthermore,

researchers with radical democratic sympathies have been able to find a few praiseworthy,

contemporary examples; these include particular locals of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers

(Camfield 2007, 287) and the fledgling Starbucks Workers Union (Ince 2007, 28). Finally,

collaborations between unions in the North and South have been well documented and

highlighted (e.g., Lambert and Webster 2001; Frundt 2000).

The study of such successes has spawned attempts to identify a general model of labour

unionism that is particularly effective in the era of neo-liberal globalization. The concept of

social movement unionism was first applied in the late 1980s and early 1990s to unions in

South Africa and the Philippines that allied with and mobilized community groups as a source of

power in authoritarian states (Waterman 2004, 217). In the intervening years social movement

unionism has become a cornerstone in the burgeoning literature on how unions might best


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respond to the changed circumstances of neo-liberal globalization (e.g., Moody 1997; Lopez

2004; and Fairbrother and Webster 2008 as one of the articles in a symposium on social

movement unionism).

In most of the contributions to this literature, social movement unionism (SMU) is

presented as a shorthand way to reference the conjunction of a praiseworthy set of union

characteristics. For example, Kim Moody defines social movement unionism in terms of

particular characteristics on five separate variables: (1) union governance: deeply democratic;

(2) approach to collective bargaining: militant; (3) relationship to established political parties:

independent; (4) strategy for political action: reaching out to other sectors of the class, be they

other unions, neighborhood organizations, or other social movements; and (5) core ethical

commitment: fights for all the oppressed (1997, 4-5). Conceptually similar approaches to

defining SMU have been taken by Robinson (2000, 110), Scipes (2003, 6) and Camfield (2007,

287), among others, although each approach varies in terms of the particular set of

characteristics that are grouped together under the SMU banner.

In contradistinction to virtually everyone else who has published on SMU over the years,

Peter Waterman has deliberately embedded his understanding of the concept in a model that

draws upon theories of networked capitalism, new social movements and radical

communications. This gives his understanding of SMU a systematic theoretical grounding that is

missing from that of other contributors. Waterman has identified the distinctiveness of his

approach in these terms: Most of those who have used the SMU concept have understood it not

in terms of an articulation between the two or more bodies of theory, or two complexes of


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practice [this is Watermans approach], but in that of an alliance within the class (waged/non-

waged), and/or between the class and the popular/community (2004, 220-21).

Although Peter Waterman apparently coined the name social movement unionism

(Waterman 2004, 217) and first presented his ideas under this heading (e.g., 1993), he later

started to use slightly different terms in order to emphasize the distinctiveness of his own

contribution. Nevertheless, given that Waterman at no time disconnected himself from the

broader literature on global social movement unionism (2001, 316) and has recently re-identified

with the fraternity of SMU scholars (2008), we think his model of unionism is best termed

global social movement unionism (or global SMU). Indeed for reasons explained below, we

see Watermans work as the most interesting and challenging model of global SMU and, as a

consequence, it is the sole focus of our analysis. Furthermore, by concentrating on Peter

Watermans scholarship we hope to help correct the unfortunate tendencies in the literature to

either ignore his work entirely (e.g., Schiavone 2007) or, more commonly, to identify a generic

model of SMU that elides Watermans work with that of other scholars (e.g., von Holdt 2002,

297; Park 2007, 312-315).

This study aims to contribute to the debate on the value of global SMU as an

emancipatory labour strategy in majority world countries, with the proviso that only Watermans

version of the concept will be scrutinized. In the next section we discuss the theoretical origins

and logic of Peter Watermans model, list the main elements of his conceptualization and explain

why we think his approach is deserving of concentrated attention. This sets the stage for the

heart of the paper, a consideration of the applicability of global SMU to Bangladesh. Bangladesh

is chosen for consideration both because the country has been an important site for the


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manufacture of ready made garments in the neo-liberal era and because the Bangladesh labour

movement has largely been ignored in the literature on global SMU. The main conclusions from

our case study are that Watermans model fails to comprehend the present-day necessities and

struggles of the Bangladesh working class; and ignores the impacts of colonialism, militarism

and imperialism on Bangladeshs socio-economic development and labour movement. We

conclude by considering whether global SMU should therefore be rejected entirely as an

emancipatory labour strategy in majority world countries or whether it should be retained for

application on a limited and selective basis.

Watermans Model of Global SMU

Peter Watermans original, systematic presentation of SMU in 1993 was a synthesis of

socialist trade-union theory with that of new social movement (NSM) theory (2004, 220). In

1999, his notion of SMU was extended to incorporate radical communications theory from

which he took ideas on the potential of the information and communications technology for

emancipatory movements (2004, 221). In 2004, the concept was further extended to define a

new kind of labour internationalism (2004, 249-252), later called the new global labour

solidarity (2008, 306-308).

It is easy to trace the lineage between socialist trade-union theory and Watermans model

of global SMU with its emphases on class struggles in the workplace, worker control over the

labour process and a reduction in working time. Nevertheless Watermans largest theoretical

debt is to theorizing on new social movements. From NSM theory, stated Waterman in 2004, I

took the significance of radical-democratic identity movements, the equivalence of different


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radical-democratic struggles, of networking as a movement form, of the socio-cultural as an

increasingly central arena of emancipatory struggles (220-21). It is noteworthy that, in his first

systematic presentation of SMU (1993, 252), Waterman traced his concern with struggles in civil

society to Antonio Gramsci through a quote taken from Laclau and Mouffe (1981). More recent

expositions, however, do not engage with Gramscis own thought or with scholars working in

the Gramscian tradition. This is further evidence that socialist trade-union theory is a decidedly

secondary source for the development of Watermans conception of global SMU.

Peter Watermans notion of global SMU has always been laden with a very broad

theoretical and political intent. In 1988 he wrote, We are talking not simply of a different union

model but a different understandingof the role of the working class and its typical organization

in the transformation of society (cited in Scipes 1992, 83). Therefore Watermans model is as

much oriented to future political possibilities as it is grounded on what labour movements are

doing today. Some of Watermans scholarly peers have objected to the overtly political or

normative thrust of his approach. An early critic was von Holdt (2002, 297). More recently,

Fairbrother and Webster dismissed Watermans work as a universal normative program of

what a progressive trade union should look like. In its stead they advocated for an analytical

device that allows one to engage in a comparative historically-based analysis (2008, 310). We

believe this criticism is short sighted. Peter Watermans model is an ideal type that uses different

theoretical lenses to project a possible future path of development for progressive labour

unionism. While comparative-historical research like that favoured by Fairbrother and Webster

is adept at testing causal hypotheses, ideal-typical research also has its place it promotes the

systematic reassessment of the overall character of a particular case in light of that cases


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similarities to and deviations from the ideal type. This sort of case reconstruction simultaneously

reveals the heuristic value of the ideal-typical conception. What follows is our distillation of the

six key elements of Watermans notion.

Global social movement unions that practice global labour solidarity

(1) Advance a radical and utopian set of demands concerning work and other social institutions

including worker/union control over everything up to and including product selection and

investment; the equitable sharing of domestic work; anti-authoritarian, non-racist and non-sexist

social organization; and an increase in free time for cultural self-development and self-

realization (2004, 249).

(2) Work with a wide variety of other groups in ways that respect those groups autonomy and

thus stimulate organizational democracy, pluralism and innovation (2004, 250).

(3) Support the production of worker and popular culture apart from dominant institutions

(2004, 250).

(4) Use informational networks to pursue grassroots, international solidarity relationships that

are reciprocal rather than hierarchical in character, based on the needs, values and capacities of

ordinary working people (2004, 250-251) and which aim to create a global civil society and

global solidarity culture (1999, 261).

(5) Overcome dependency in international solidarity work by financing internationalist

activities from worker or publicly-collected funds (2004, 251).

(6) Participate in formal internationalist forums with both labour unions and other progressive

organizations (2004, 251).


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This is a left libertarian ideal type that accords labour unions an important but not a pre-eminent

role in the broad, global justice and solidarity movement.

Peter Waterman developed his model of global SMU with reference to the new kind of

capitalist society that emerged beginning in the 1970s. At a general level, Waterman argues that

global capitalism is fundamentally different and more complex than industrial capitalism: the

number, significance and scale of social contradictions are dramatically increase[d] at the

same time that labour/capital conflict may become less important (1999, 249). The new social

movements (NSMs) arising from such contradictions are termed fundamental issue

movements by Waterman since peace, ecological sustainability, and human rights for the

majority of the world population (women) would seem to be conditions for the existence of any

minimally humane society (250). The NSMs are important for labour movements in two senses:

as potential allies and as models of the democratic, horizontal and networked organizational

form that is definitive of his notion of global SMU (250).

According to Waterman there is an important political dimension to labours current

crisis. In global capitalism the terrain of struggle has increasingly spread to civil society,

creating problems for traditional unions that typically prioritize economic struggle (against

capital), or political struggle (against the state). Furthermore, the centrality of the nation-

state ... has increasingly been challenged, both by international bodies and forces ... and by sub-

national communities (regional, ethnic, local) (1999, 251). Waterman contends that

conventional unions have found it difficult to operate in this new political environment; hence

the need for a new model of unionism.


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In a recent paper, Waterman made it clear that his model of global SMU has also been

influenced by the trans-national struggles for social justice of recent years.

My feeling is that with a globalised networked capitalism, the history of

labour/labour history has to start again. But this time labour has to be understood

as one crucial but equal part of what is calling itself the global justice and

solidarity movement (GJSM). This movement is beginning to put in question

both the capitalist system andthe labour movement -- the major subaltern social

movement of national-industrial-colonial (and a major one of anti-colonial)

capitalism. (2005a, 196)

In our estimation there is much of interest and value in Peter Watermans model

of global SMU. Firstly, rather than blithely forecast that better days are around the corner

or concentrate on small victories in the overall pattern of reversal, Waterman theorizes

the contemporary crisis for labour movements and in so doing provides insights into how

the crisis might be surmounted. Regardless of whether one agrees with the particulars of

Watermans thinking, his theory-driven approach is commendable. Secondly, although at

one level Watermans model is eclectic in that it combines ideas from three distinct

theoretical sources, at a more fundamental level it is consistent. This is because it

emphasizes the importance of systemic economic processes in understanding the place of

labour in the era of globalized networked capitalism (1999, 248-251). Thirdly, Waterman

highlights what is distinctive about the contemporary era (particularly the importance of

the new social movements and new information technologies) while simultaneously

recognizing the continuities between global capitalism and the forms of capitalism that


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preceded it. As a consequence he is neither workerist in orientation nor willing to join

with Gorz (1982) and Castells (1996) in bidding farewell to the working class.

We also find Peter Watermans model of considerable interest because of the way

in which it has been developed. While it engages different theoretical sources, it is also

the product of the authors practical engagement with labour unions and the global justice

and solidarity movement. Furthermore, Waterman has now been popularizing and

refining his model for almost two decades; this has forced him to clarify the logic of his

thinking over time and to create progressively stronger versions of the model. At the

same time Waterman has been refreshingly self critical (2004, 239), humorous and self

deprecating (2008, 303-04) in exchanges with critics, thus encouraging constructive

dialogue. In choosing Peter Watermans version of global SMU as the focus of our study,

therefore, we are choosing what we think is, for the reasons just enumerated, a unique

and engaging model that deserves to be systematically evaluated against additional

empirical evidence.

On the Applicability of Global SMU to Bangladesh

The main strength of Watermans global SMU model is that it seriously engages the

plurality of the contemporary social formation, which is a reality of contemporary worlds in both

the South and the North. Furthermore, it has a penchant for a more democratic, open and

humanistic approach to Left politics and social transformation. Nonetheless, there are some

serious questions about the applicability of the model in the majority world.


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The first problem concerns the ambiguous scope of global SMU. Peter Waterman states

that his concept was not intended to be either populist or thirdworldist; rather it is intended to

relate to and be appropriate for our contemporary world (1999, 247). Watermans problem is

that he fails to clarify whether his notion of our contemporary world includes all of the

countries of the majority world. Over the last few years, new kinds of labour movements have

emerged in the South. Some of these movements represent various kinds of alliances against

authoritarian, racial, and military dictatorships (Scipes 1992; Webster and Lipsig-Mumme 2002).

Others are community kinds of movements induced mainly by the NGOs and various

cooperative/local organizations (Ford 2001; Petras 2002). We find it troubling that Waterman

selectively refers to a few majority world working class movements (such as India and South

Africa) when discussing his concept but never systematically specifies whether it applies writ

large to the variety of labour movements in the South. Our first criticism of global SMU,

therefore, is in accord with Ronaldo Muncks view (2005, 233) that a truly global

perspective on labour movements must demonstrate more than a passing acquaintance with the

state of different labour movements in the South.

We will develop this criticism by discussing the situation in Bangladesh (one of the many

countries absent from Watermans radar screen even though it is a critical site of production in

our contemporary world). Even though neo-liberal globalization has integrated North and

South very efficiently in terms of production, consumption and distribution, there remain large

variations between Southern states and societies on the one hand and Northern states and

societies on the other, as well as among the states and societies within the South. The differences

exist because of different historical developments of the states, classes and other socio-economic


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and cultural features. It is our opinion that these historical developments must be taken into

consideration while developing a theoretical understanding of labour movements in the

contemporary world. Karl von Holdt made a similar point in his study of labour activism in

South Africa (one of the countries that spurred the development of the concept of SMU): he

questioned the transferability of strategies between labour movements located in very different

sociopolitical realities. This led von Holdt to conclude that globalization is unlikely to produce

the conditions for a globalized SMU.... National reality counts (2002, 299). In their recent

critique of Watermans model, Fairbrother and Webster made a complementary point: There is

not a universal panacea to the specificity of time and place (2008, 311).

Over time, colonialism, militarism, and imperialism have had significant impacts on each

majority world countrys labour movement, not to mention the overall socio-economic

development of each country. This is why we see that countries that have experienced an

extended period of military dictatorship have often developed similar labour movements and

labour relations (weakened labour movements, nepotism and corruption, and a malleable force to

the political parties). Examples of this generalization are found in studies on Indonesia (Ford

2001), Pakistan (Candland 1999), Argentina (Petras 2002), Chile (Schurman 2001) and the

Philippines (Scipes 1992). Sometimes, however, a shared colonial history is trumped by other

historical forces that create variation in labour movements. An example of this pattern is India

and Pakistan: while both were ruled by the British Empire for more than two hundred years, two

different sorts of labour movements developed in the post-independence period (Candland

1999). This is because of their allegiances during the Cold War with, respectively, the Soviet

Union and the USA; their differences in political and other institutional development; and the


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intervention of the military in politics in Pakistan. It is noteworthy that although both countries

were forced to adopt the Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) induced by the International

Monetary Fund, the labour movements in India successfully resisted and forced the Indian state

to abandon the program by not accepting any venture of privatization. Pakistan labour

organizations, on the other hand, accepted the SAP (Candland 1999).

A similar situation exists in Bangladesh as in Pakistan. This helps to explain why, when

the Bangladesh government in 2002 shut down a fifty year old jute mill, known as the Dundee

of the east, and laid off 30,000 labourers (more than 75,000 people lived within the premise of

the jute mill), there was no labour resistance (Mahmud 2002). Rather than being militant or

organizing in a global SMU fashion, Bangladesh labour movements have tended to be quiescent

with the character of a malleable political force, having parochial allegiances to various political

parties. Furthermore, Bangladesh labour leaders form a trade union bureaucracy plunged in

corruption and nepotism. Another example of the lethargy of the Bangladesh labour movement

concerned a horrific recent accident where a newly built four-storied garment factory in Dhaka

collapsed because of faulty building construction. Although the collapse caused the death of

seventy-three workers and injured one hundred others, there was no labour protest or

mobilization (Malek and Rumi 2005).

This brief discussion has highlighted how the labour movements in majority world

countries are sometimes alike but sometimes quite different from one another. In studying this

spectrum of labour movements one must consider the varied natures of Southern societies,

influenced to varying degrees by agrarian, feudal, semi-industrial, and world-factory based

industrial economies. Watermans model of global SMU is incapable of capturing the realities of


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these labour movements since it is North Atlanticist (Muncks polite term for Eurocentric; 2005,

233) and industrial/post-industrial in orientation. We concur with Munck that the community-

based labour movement set in the foreground of global SMU seems to, at best, portray the

situation in a few selected third world countries rather than all or even a large proportion of the

countries in the South.

One of the most interesting features of the global SMU model is its radical democratic

and libertarian values. Nevertheless, these utopian values are the focus of our second criticism:

they are misfit for the hundreds of millions of proletarians throughout majority world countries

who face a life and death struggle for immediate needs. Effective labour movements in these

countries are concerned with the very existence of working people, as can be seen in the

experiences of the Zapatistas of Mexico (De Angelis 2000; Edelman 2001) and the Coalition for

Urban Poor in Bangladesh (Rahman 2003). This point equally applies to labour movements of

poor working people in developed countries (e.g., Fuerza Unida of San Antonio in the USA --

Zugman 2003). Such movements concentrate on the struggle for economic redistribution while

valorizing a poor working class identity. In theory, Watermans model is open to this reality

since it prioritizes the needs, values and capacities of ordinary working people in the pursuit of

global labour solidarity (2004, 250-251). Nonetheless we believe that the faithful pursuit of this

priority would lead inevitably to contradictions with the radical democratic and libertarian values

at the heart of the model.

Furthermore, even when working class people participate in new social movements or

organizations with a global SMU character, their issues and goals are different from that of

middle class participants. For instance, working class environmental movements (such as the


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anti-toxic substance and anti-solid waste disposal movements) are very much related to the

questions of survival and immediate needs for poor communities directly affected by neo-liberal

globalization.

Our third criticism concerns Peter Watermans expectation that global social movement

unions will be autonomous social forces that collaborate with other autonomous organizations

in democratic partnerships (1999, 261). This claim would have greater credibility if Waterman

had discussed how labour unions in majority world countries achieve the resources necessary to

exercise such autonomy. It is our contention that most labour organizations in the least

developed countries (LDCs) have very little scope for organizational survival without support

from political parties and their intellectuals or the contemporary NGOs.

The state of trade unions in Bangladesh illustrates why the assumption of autonomy is so

inapplicable to certain countries. Even before transnational companies began to produce goods in

Bangladesh in the early 1980s, there was no strong trade union tradition among private sector

workers (Hossain 2005). The situation with private sector unionization has gotten even worse

since then. Labour union activities in the ready made garment factories owned by Bangladesh

contractors are not prohibited but nevertheless are almost non-existent because of the owners

abusive anti-unionism. At the same time, Bangladesh prohibits by law any activities by labour

unions in its Export Processing Zones (Bhattacharya 2001; Khan 2001; Quadir 2007).

Meanwhile labour organizations in the public sector do not strongly advocate for workers

welfare and are beset by corruption and nepotism which mainly comes about because of the

close links between the trade union bureaucracy and leadership of political parties (Akkas 1999).

These negative features of public sector unionization originated during the Cold War period (i.e.,


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immediately after the independence from British colonialism) but flourished during the

subsequent military regimes (Ahmed 1969; Akkas 1999).

There is one ray of hope on the labour front in Bangladesh, however; it involves the

encouragement of working class organizations by NGOs. At first glance such NGO-promoted

organizations appear to have some of the characteristics of global SMU as identified by

Waterman. However, in no sense should one regard these labour groups as self-conscious and

autonomous. The NGO officials provide the necessary training, logistics and resources for

mobilizing the working poor and raising their awareness; furthermore this assistance is not

widely spread since it goes only to those segments who are directly associated with the

respective NGOs. Two further problems with such sponsored labour organizations should be1

noted. Firstly, working people engaged in the NGOs are totally dependent on the NGOs

resources and money. Secondly, the activities and various development programs of most of the

NGOs depend upon the flow of foreign funding aided by the western core countries, various

supranational organizations and other international NGOs (Ford 2001; Quadir 2007). Such

financial dependency runs counter to Watermans own notion of global labour solidarity.

It is also important to note that some Bangladesh NGOs have become large business

ventures in their own right. Two of the notable domestic NGOs that have commercial activities

(such as cellular telephone service, textile and garment products, printing press, commercial

banking and fashion wears) are Grameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee.

1 Critical studies focused on NGOs are not found in the literature. This information comes fromZia Rahmans interviews of NGO officials in Dhaka in 2007 as well as primary documentary

research. The notable NGOs include Nizera Kari, Nari Uddag Kendra, UBINIG,BangladeshLegal Aid Services (BLAST) and Bangladesh National Womens Lawyers Association

(BNWLA).


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Both of these NGOs were highly dependent on Western donor agencies for their initial

programs. Although they still receive foreign funding, however, they also use the profits from

commercial activities to sustain programs. They therefore appear to diffuse modern capitalist

values in Bangladesh (Bertelsmann 2010; Feldma 1997; Quadir 2007; Rashiduzzaman 1998).

The question of resources is indeed crucial for the working poor. It is evident that many

NGOs in LDCs such as Bangladesh are funded by international agencies. In turn these NGOs

have organized, mobilized and developed many working class organizations by providing them

with money and resources. They do so as part of their efforts to establish a liberal democratic

environment. This is an interesting pattern of working class formation but it definitely does not

fit the autonomous social force picture of the global SMU model. It is worth noting that a

similar pattern of labour organizing by NGOs existed in Indonesia during the autocratic rule of

Suharto. However this campaign was derailed when various international agencies funding the

NGOs demanded that their money be used in the area of human rights (Ford 2001).

Furthermore, the development of autonomous global SMU in a country like Bangladesh

is severely impeded by both the over developed state (Alavi 1983) and the expansive role of

political parties. Kasfir (1998) mentions that the African ruling elites always use state resources

and patronage in order to create cleavages in civil society, and this has become a very common

scenario in Bangladesh and other LDCs as well. Hence, the development of an independent and

autonomous civil society is in doubt, let alone independent and autonomous working class

organizations.

The idea of self-sufficient, global social movement unions engaged as autonomous

social forces with political forces (Waterman 1999, 261) is a fanciful dream in countries like


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Bangladesh. Certainly most of the people in the LDCs, including the working class, have

become frustrated with the widespread influence of political parties because of their very

parochial, bureaucratic, hierarchic, corrupted and authoritarian nature. But at the same time,

most segments of the people in the LDCs are materially dependent upon one or the other of the

major political parties. Thus rather than withering away, political parties are becoming stronger.

In this regard Candland (1999) showed that all ten large labour organizations in India are directly

connected to the major political parties that provide all the necessary channels, guidelines, and

resources. In Bangladesh, each of the two major political parties likewise has its own labour

front (Akkas 1999; Khan 2001).

In fact, the way that the two major political parties strive to control major Bangladesh

institutions is a serious concern for citizens, academics and international agencies (Bertelsmann

2010; Quadir 2007; Rashiduzzaman 1998) Among the major institutions targeted by the parties

are the judiciary and police (Quadir 2007), government bureaucracy (Jahan 2006) and the

military (Rahman 1981). They also strive to control professional organizations such as university

teachers associations (Panday and Jamil 2009), journalists, and even cultural organizations that

represent NSMs. Hence the working class organizations in Bangladesh and many other LDCs

have very little capacity to avoid the major political parties authority.

The NGOs in countries like Bangladesh have the same class basis (the educated middle

class) as the NSMs in developed countries. Watermans model of global SMU also has a

distinctly new-middle-class orientation. This is the starting point for our fourth criticism.

Educated professionals are making and will continue to make essential contributions to

progressive movements. Nevertheless, we question whether a model of unionism congruent with


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post-industrial middle class values will be able to effectively preserve the rights of the working

class in Bangladesh and emancipate them from the brutal slaps of neo-liberalism.

Most of the global proletariat lives in agrarian countries or countries that are at semi-

industrial phases. Colonialism, militarism, and imperialism have severely impacted the socio-

economic development of these countries and created stagnant labour movements. More

recently, the flexibilisation promoted by transnational companies has further weakened many

labour movements in the South. Taking this scenario into account, we argue that the giant

transnational corporations, the capitalist core countries and their various supranational allies are

the main forces in the arrested progress of the labour movements in third world countries.

Consequently, any movement to rejuvenate labour should be aimed mainly against these forces.

Our point is consistent with a question raised by Ronaldo Munck in relation to Peter Watermans

work: How can anyone look around the world today and not foreground imperialism, war,

neocolonialism, and resistance (2005, 233)?

Our fifth criticism concerns the implications of the digital divide for union organizing

in the South. Unlike the post-industrial middle class, which has the leisure time, cultural capital

and economic and political securities mentioned by Inglehart (1990), the working class

movements in the South are primarily movements for survival and existence. Peter Waterman

acknowledges this point with the comment: I am, of course, perfectly well award of the distance

between the bulk of the world proletariat ... and my Palm [Personal Digital Assistant] (2005a,

201). However he does not modify his theory accordingly. While union leaders may have access

to the internet in LDCs, the vast majority of their members neither have access nor the time

available to use it even if they did have access. This profound inequality militates against the


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development of the horizontal, democratic, participatory labour unions that are suggested by the

model of global SMU. Furthermore, the digital divide encourages leader-to-leader inter-

organizational relations rather than the member-to-member contact emphasized in Watermans

notion of global labour solidarity. It would thus seem that at the present time the global SMU

model is only fully suited to industrial/post-industrial countries where majorities of workers have

a reasonable amount of disposable income and discretionary time.

Our two final criticisms concern means of struggle and ultimate goals. Global SMU

involves a great deal of intra-movement and inter-movement dialogue and cooperation. Yet in

countries like Bangladesh, trade union relations with the authorities need to be intensely

adversarial since neither the government nor the employer care for any minimum level of

welfare for workers. The whole society still carries out the old traditions of loyalty, authority and

rigid hierarchical relationships where a poor worker has very little scope to talk face-to-face with

his employer or with the state agencies. This observation lines up with the finding of two recent

studies that employers and the state apparatuses never show any interest in workers conditions

until they feel strong pressure from the working class organizations (Petras 2002; Lee 2003). The

question we raise, then, is whether labour unions in majority world countries should be

committing limited resources to furthering democratic dialogue when militant collective

mobilization is what gets results? In an ideal world these strategies would not be in conflict, but

the situation in countries like Bangladesh is far from that ideal.

This leads us to one final comment on the ultimate goal of union struggles in majority

world countries. It is noteworthy that Peter Waterman (2005a and 2005b) expresses a strong

commitment to the global justice and solidarity movement and promotes a utopian future of


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humanistic cultural self-development that is incompatible with global capitalism. However

Waterman does not explicitly identify global SMU as anti-capitalist. Workers in Bangladesh and

many other countries face colonialism, militarism, authoritarianism and imperialism. If we see

these as different phases of capitalist development (e.g., Munck 2002) then any emancipatory

labour movement should stand primarily against capitalist exploitation. Capitalism perhaps does

not seem like such a bad thing from the relative comfort of a post-industrial, new middle class

subject position. However from the standpoint of hundreds of millions of workers and their

families around the globe, it is a cruel, brutal and heartless socio-economic system. Peter

Watermans model of global SMU captures the revolutionary character of capitalism as a mode

of production; however it underplays the exploitation, misery and restricted human development

that are the primary products of globalized capitalist social relations.

Summary and Conclusion

The previous section discussed the applicability to Bangladesh of Peter Watermans

model of global social movement unionism. We offered seven reasons why Watermans model

is largely inapplicable for understanding the present situation and future possibilities for the

labour movement in Bangladesh. Our argument in summary form is:

1) Peter Watermans global SMU model is North Atlanticist and industrial/post-industrial

in orientation and as a consequence fails to comprehend the reality of the labour movement in

Bangladesh and kindred countries in the majority world. In developing his model, Waterman

failed to take into account the impacts of colonialism, militarism and imperialism on the socio-

economic development and labour movement in countries such as Bangladesh.


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2) The radical democratic and libertarian values at the heart of the global SMU model are

misfit for the proletariat in most of the majority world countries who face a life and death

struggle for immediate needs.

3) Labour unions in countries like Bangladesh are not in a position to act as autonomous

social forces. Some are dependent upon NGOs and sponsoring international agencies. Others are

dependent upon domestic political parties and the state.

4) The global SMU model is based upon the interests and concerns of the educated

middle class in the North and the South. An emancipatory labour strategy for the proletariat in

the global South, however, must recognize and target the main sources of the institutional

stagnation of the countries in the South, namely the giant transnational corporations, the

capitalist core countries and their supranational allies.

5) Most of the proletarians in countries such as Bangladesh do not have access to

advanced communication technologies. This militates against the development of horizontal,

democratic and participatory unions and social movements, as envisioned by the global SMU

model.

6) Global SMU privileges democratic dialogue as a means of action when militant

collective mobilization has been shown to be the only effective way to get action on workers

issues in countries like Bangladesh.

7) Global SMU fails to highlight the misery created by capitalist social relations

throughout the majority world and is not explicitly anti-capitalist even though its utopian goals

are incompatible with global capitalism.


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We began this article with a sympathetic presentation of Peter Watermans ideal-typical

model of global SMU. However the model comes up decidedly short when assessed as a

potential emancipatory labour strategy in contemporary Bangladesh. Should we, as a

consequence, reject as fundamentally flawed Watermans work on global SMU?

Instead of outright rejection, our recommendation is for Waterman and others to abandon

the quest for a single, universal model and instead come up with a variety of ideal types that

apply to different typical patterns of socio-economic and labour movement development in the

globalized world. The current version of global SMU best fits tendencies in the experiences of

labour movements in the North. Nevertheless there are large enough economic, political and

social differences among Northern countries and labour movements that even here the one

model fits all approach is questionable. Furthermore, when it comes to the majority world the

generic model needs both careful revisions and specifications that capture the typical patterns of

colonial, post-colonial and imperialistic relations in those countries.

Adding historical specifications and taking seriously the current levels of literacy and

economic well being of proletarians in different parts of the globe will inevitably downplay the

left libertarian core values of Watermans current vision of global SMU. Nevertheless these

values can survive in specified models both in transitional attenuated forms and as ideals which

can only be realized when workers have much higher levels of well being and where democratic

civil society organizations are very well established. We remain open to Peter Watermans

argument that the modus operandi of the new social movements is the way forward for labour

movements in globalized networked capitalism. For many contemporary labour movements,

however, this is a long-term path of emancipation rather than something that is a current


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possibility. New variants of global SMU will need to distinguish between the practical and the

utopian dimensions of SMU and suggest how the realization of practical objectives will promote

utopian goals.

Finally we continue to believe that, given the opportunities and resources, working

people can identify their own problems and necessities and are capable of organizing their own

movements of resistance and progressive social change. However support is needed in countries

such as Bangladesh because of the deep poverty of the working class, the corrupted and

malleable character of existing unions and the neo-imperialism of NGOs. In keeping with Peter

Watermans model of global labour solidarity, our hope is that working class and independent

citizen organizations in the North will rise to this challenge and provide appropriate resources

and logistics in coming years. The more that such solidarity work involves grassroots initiatives

and participation, the greater is the likelihood that workers from different countries will learn

from each other and global SMU values and organizational forms will gain a foothold even in

relatively barren ground.


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